City of Culture

[Felicity, I guess so]

No thread on this..?

I can see that no-one outside of the towns/cities in contention would've been remotely interested. Working in Sunderland means I have been acutely aware of it and my facebook and email are full of much gnashing and wailing that 'we' got turned down.

It was bleeding obvious however, that Sunderland was never going to win. 'The South' thinks Hull and Sunderland are the same sort of place/part of the country; Bremoaners would've seen it as a reward for Sunderland = Brexitland; Paisley was in with a shout cos the Tories think they might have some votes in Scotland to gain and Coventry won because one quick look at their publicity and the London Olympics multicultural factor was all over it. I KNEW Cov would win and woke up this morning wondering why on earth i didn't bet on it.

So now I wait for the bad news/pulled funding announcements to roll in- I have heard the short film fest i was a judge on has gone already...the Spanish film fest I had mooted if 'we' won is now impossible. And a cynic asks how much of the culture/leisure budget went on the bid, given that Sunderland has no local libraries and the central one moved into a room in the museum...

[Duncan Gardner]

Sunderland has no local libraries and the central one moved into a room in the museum...

For a place of SR's size that is not good

ps Paislig was the bookies' favorite

[Nefertiti2]

They've chosen the wealthiest city, and the one that's easiest to get to from London as the person who won the bid was at pains to point out. Also the one near the University of Warwick

They had the same bid consultant as Hull. Shame for Sunderland, and all the others. but what a daft way to invest in the nations arts by getting 4 cities to spend a lot of time and money preparing things that aren't going to happen,

[Fussbudget]

I would have bet on Paisley as it was the only one of the five places listed that didn't immediately make your heart sink (rightly or wrongly) at the thought of having to spend more than 10 minutes there. And I don't say this to take the piss, living in a town with exactly the same kind of less-than-sexy public profile. Then again these are the places that need opportunities like this the most.

Commiserations, Felicity. And as DG says, that library situation is really poor.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Commiserations, Felicity. And as DG says, that library situation is really poor.

Well...I don't live there, and I thank everything I can think of that we bought a flat before I got the job, hence live in newcastle** .

My attitude to the whole business is very ambivalent- so I would feel hypocritical accepting your commiserations, cos (unlike some of my colleagues) I don't think my professional opportunities are the key to how i view things and...well, what Nef says about this being how the UK should invest in culture (or, as I suspect will be the SR case, how we spend our culture budget and leave nothing for the basics).


**NOT anti-Sunderland sentiment- I spent years organising politically there, and have always hated the Geordie snottiness towards the place...but it had not a single cinema for years, FFS, and for me the ability to go to the cinema (preferably more than one, with a choice of not just the blockbusters) is a basic human right. But having lived in Birmingham, Toulouse, Lille and Madrid, I guess I got spoilt.

[KingsburySaint]

St Mirren Park will remain known as the Paisley2021 Stadium up until the end of the season. Perhaps the second leg of the 1988 Anglo Scottish Cup Winners Cup will finally be played with winners becoming host (St Mirren currently winning on away goals).

All the projects announced for Paisley are likely to go ahead. The Council has bet the Town Centre on cultural regeneration (new library, upgraded museum) but none dependant on winning the bid, or so we've been told.

[Lang Spoon]

No cinema in Sunderland? Fucking hell.

[Fussbudget]

They have one now, don't they? The proximity to Newcastle and the Metrocentre is really killing Sunderland though. Boro is almost exactly the same size and hardly a cultural mecca itself, but it's positively thriving in comparison.

[Toby Gymshorts]

For some reason this thread brought to mind Jeanie Finlay's documentary Sound It Out, featuring the eponymous Teesside record shop.

Disappointed to note that it's not available on iPlayer. What a piece of filmmaking it is.

[Gangster Octopus]

No cinema in Sunderland? Fucking hell.

As far as I know there is no longer one in Rotherham either. And everytime someone tries to open one, Sheffield whines and it doesn't happen.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Sheffield whines

You wouldn't think they'd have the climate for viniculture, really.

[Gangster Octopus]

It's got plenty of hills. Some must be south-facing.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Coventry's been making a lot of noise about HS2 which it says will hurt it.

So makes sense as a sop.

[HORN]

On Thursday morning the local rag led with a story that Swansea's theatre may close for a month due to budget cuts. That speaks volumes about the place. Not enough cash to support a long list of desperate tribute acts, but millions to blow on reworking the city centre in the most crass fashion* so we could fill it with 3mpg bendy buses that the city then couldn't afford to fuel.

Ptang, late of this parish, once described the horrors of the city centre as some sort of divine retribution for having Gower on our doorstep. As far as I can tell the town centre looked quite nice until the Luftwaffe did a bit of redesign in early 1941. It's a city built on heavy industry, and has the gene pool to prove it. Hardly a bedrock of culture, though I'm not sure how much that really mattered.

* counter-intuitive traffic flow resulting in several deaths, including that of a WPC, as people stepped into the road looking the wrong way.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Swansea have really gone for regeneration by attracting lots of students. Brexit could still piss all over that.

I wish their branch of American Golf was nearer the centre. Otherwise, don't mind it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's funny that just when people are saying town/city centres are dying, money is being spent on doing them up.

Gloucester's even getting rid of its appalling bus station and Kings Square.

[Mr Beast]

Not everywhere. The town I live looks like there's just been a world war and we lost it.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

They have one now, don't they? The proximity to Newcastle and the Metrocentre is really killing Sunderland though. Boro is almost exactly the same size and hardly a cultural mecca itself, but it's positively thriving in comparison.

I've been to more gigs in the north east than I care to remember - obviously many in Newcastle and Gateshead, but also Whitley Bay, Durham, and Middlesbrough each more than once, but the only time I've seen a gig in Sunderland was at the Stadium of Light, which doesn't say much for the live music scene. It must be the biggest town/city in the country not to have a regular venue on the touring circuit (I'm not seeking to open up any West Midlands shenanigans with that statement btw).

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not everywhere. The town I live looks like there's just been a world war and we lost it.

My nearest doesn't look great. My second nearest looks much better, in no small measure due to EU money. Don't ask.

I wonder if town centres get more residential, then will that make it more likely they get smartened up?

[Lang Spoon]

My home town has a mile long high street. It’s so fucking depressing now it’s unreal. Empty units, pawnbrokers, charity shops etc, the lost and befuddled about the only patrons. When they close the big m&s the place dies. I hope to fuck residential will kick something off, but most fucks want to live in a Barratt box near the retail park and dual carriageway.

[Snake Plissken]

Who could possibly have predicted that trade in Stockport town centre would die off when the Council approved a massive huge Tesco at the edge of it? And increased parking charges for good measure?

Oh. Everybody. Well done.

Could be worse. Thanks to John Prescott, it could have been Ikea. That went to Ashton instead.

[sw2borshch]

I went to see the Fall at Sunlun Poly about 28 years ago.

Anyway, Sunderland hasn't got a WHSmith.

[Toby Gymshorts]

....which is a positive boon.

[sw2borshch]

It's a Health and Efficiency desert.

[Toby Gymshorts]

If it's nudie ladies you're after, I'm led to believe that you can find them on that there Internet they have these days.

I wouldn't know, obviously.